The United Nations called on Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities Tuesday to immediately restore internet and telecommunications in the country, 24 hours after a nationwide blackout was imposed.The government began shutting down high-speed internet connections to some provinces earlier this month to prevent “immorality”, on the orders of shadowy supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.Mobile phone signal and internet service weakened on Monday night until connectivity was less than one percent of ordinary levels.Afghans are unable to contact each other, online businesses and the banking systems have frozen, and diaspora abroad cannot send crucial remittances to family.All flights were cancelled at Kabul airport on Tuesday, AFP journalists saw.”The cut in access has left Afghanistan almost completely cut off from the outside world, and risks inflicting significant harm on the Afghan people, including by threatening economic stability and exacerbating one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises,” the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a statement.”The current blackout also constitutes a further restriction on access to information and freedom of expression in Afghanistan,” it added.The UN rights office called the blackout an “extremely serious human rights violation”.”Women and girls already excluded from public life are especially affected,” it said on social media Tuesday, calling for immediate reconnection.It is the first time since the Taliban government won their insurgency in 2021 and imposed a strict version of Islamic law that communications have been shut down in the country.”I came to work this morning but we cannot run any business because clients do not have access to online banking, transactions, cash withdrawal, or money authorisation,” a bank worker who asked not to be named told AFP in Kabul.”When there was internet, we never felt how important it was.”The post office was also unable to operate because it required bank services to carry out its work, staff told AFP. – Radio communications -Minutes before the shutdown on Monday evening, a government official warned AFP that the fibre optic network would be cut, impacting mobile phone services, “until further notice”.”There isn’t any other way or system to communicate… the banking sector, customs, everything across the country will be affected,” said the official, who asked not to be named.Telephone services are often routed over the internet, sharing the same fibre optic lines, especially in countries with limited telecoms infrastructure.The telecommunications ministry refused to let journalists enter the building in Kabul on Tuesday.A UN source said Tuesday that “operations are severely impacted, falling back to radio communications and limited satellite links”.AFP journalists witnessed Taliban security forces using radios to communicate with each other at public buildings such as the airport and post office.Over the past weeks, internet connections have been extremely slow or intermittent.On September 16, when the first internet services were cut in northern provinces, Balkh provincial spokesman Attaullah Zaid said the ban had been ordered by the Taliban’s leader.”This measure was taken to prevent vice, and alternative options will be put in place across the country to meet connectivity needs,” he wrote on social media.”Recent studies in Afghanistan found that internet applications have badly affected the ongoing, economic, cultural and religious foundations of society,” he claimed.The Taliban leader reportedly ignored warnings from some officials this month about the economic fallout of cutting the internet and ordered authorities to press ahead with a nationwide ban.Netblocks, a watchdog organisation that monitors cybersecurity and internet governance, said the blackout “appears consistent with the intentional disconnection of service”.On Tuesday, it said connectivity had flatlined below one percent, with no restoration of service observed.In 2024, Kabul had touted the 9,350-kilometre (5,800-mile) fibre optic network — largely built by former US-backed governments — as a “priority” to bring the country closer to the rest of the world and lift it out of poverty.

Searchers in Indonesia raced Tuesday to rescue dozens of people still believed trapped a day after the collapse of an Islamic school building that has already left three dead, authorities said.Tearful families desperate for news of their loved ones crowded around the flattened multi-storey building, as rescuers navigated a maze of concrete rubble in the town of Sidoarjo, located on Indonesia’s main island of Java.The building suddenly gave way on Monday as students were gathered for afternoon prayers, said local reports, citing a witness.Late Tuesday, an AFP journalist in the area felt tremors after the US Geological Survey said a magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck off the coast nearby.There were no immediate reports of damages and it was not immediately clear whether the quake affected the rescue operation.Imron, a father of one of the missing people, told local broadcaster Metro TV from near the site that he was waiting for his child to be rescued.”We are still waiting patiently. Hopefully, there is a miracle and my child will soon be evacuated,” said Imron, who only gave one name.Local rescue agency head Nanang Sigit said in a statement that the number of people affected was 100, revising down an earlier figure of 102 due to double-counting.Three people were killed, including two who succumbed to their injuries in hospital.As of Tuesday, 11 people had been rescued from the rubble, Nanang said. The national search and rescue agency said those rescued were between 13 and 19 years old.Nanang told reporters that rescuers had detected signs of life beneath the debris.”We used a camera and were able to detect six victims who showed signs of life,” he said.”When they saw the light from the search camera, they were moving their legs.”National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Abdul Muhari said earlier Tuesday 38 people were unaccounted for.Authorities have not provided a fresh update on the number of missing.National Search and Rescue Agency head Mohammad Syafii said earlier Tuesday that rescuers were working urgently to save those still believed to be trapped, but warned that the rubble was unstable, with concrete pillars piled precariously atop one another.Heavy equipment such as cranes and excavators could speed up the removal of concrete to ease access, Syafii said.”However, moving the concrete can actually threaten the lives of survivors who may still be trapped.”- Structural failure – Local media reports quoted a school official as saying construction work had been ongoing for the past nine months.The building collapsed after its foundation pillars failed to support the weight of new construction on the fourth floor of the school, according to BNBP spokesman Abdul Muhari.He called for stricter safety standards and urged the public and building managers to oversee construction processes more carefully to prevent similar incidents.Lax construction standards have raised widespread concerns about building safety in Indonesia, where it is common to leave structures — particularly houses — partially completed, allowing owners to add extra floors later when their budgets permit.Earlier this month, at least three people were killed and dozens injured when a building hosting a prayer recital collapsed in West Java.In 2018, seven teenagers rehearsing for a musical show were killed in Cirebon, east of Jakarta, when the building they were in collapsed.That same year, at least 75 people were injured when the mezzanine floor at Indonesia’s stock exchange building in Jakarta collapsed into the lobby.